Ottawa Vows Overhaul of Oil Sands Monitoring

Environment Minister John Baird admits existing oversight has been inadequate.

Environmentalists who have long been dissatisfied with weak government monitoring of the massive oil sands development may have finally gotten their wish. Days after an advisory panel released a report saying that lack of oversight was undermining public confidence in the oil sands, Baird announced Tuesday that within 90 days federal and provincial officials will unveil plans to completely overhaul environmental monitoring of the Alberta industry. The environment minister said the new plan will represent the “gold standard” of monitoring systems but critics say it has come too late to mitigate the impact of a slew of already approved projects that will double the industry’s oil production to 3.4 million barrels a day by 2020.